You speak like a privileged person, so you're probably born somewhere in the western world. Judging from the current time, I'd say Europe. My guess is your parents left socialist (i.e. not communist) Eastern Germany when you were little and you keep telling people that this was your great escape from communism ever since.
ah, the good old "I can't attack your argument so I'll try and discredit you on a personal level"
that's not how a discussion is to be held. if you cannot argue against their point then please refrain from posting at all.
this is supposed to be a place for intellectually honest discussion.
Instead, let's focus on openly provable facts:
> There just aren't that many countries that ever claimed to be communist.
Are you denying the agency of Russia, Cuba, China, and Vietnam as a few examples?
Are you telling me that these countries did not at one point, and most even today, declare themselves as "communist?" It's amazing how privileged you are to deny factual history. [0]
To be honest, I feel that you are agreeing with me that "communism" is just some theoretical panacea, as is "libertarianism." Both theoretical concepts which only ever existed in minds of true-believers, and nowhere else.
Many nations "declare" to be something they're not. North Korea is officially "Democratic People's Republic of Korea", for example.
Are we now going to evaluate how viable democracy is as a concept by looking at North Korea, simply because they call themselves democratic, or are we first going to analyze their actual political system to determine whether they're actually democratic?
Instead of arguing against my point, you have raised another slightly related issue, as a deflection. Please address my initial argument.
While we ponder these significant issues, let's watch and listen to the most freedom-loving opening ceremony in modern Olympic history. This was a prescient broadcast to the entire world. (2024) [1]
Vive la démocratie!
It's even more disingenuous to try to use these inaccurate self-assigned labels as a way to discredit ideas those labels represent, but that's getting off topic.
I accept that countries can call themselves whatever, and it's not accurate.
In that case, has there ever been a communist country? Is communism anything aside from a theoretical panacea, just like "free market" libertarianism? Has any country ever been either pure extreme? If not, what would you call them? Give me a few examples please.
I am not being snarky. I really want us all to get on the same page.